


With Regards to Meredith Brooks

by LittleUggie



Series: Pack of Strays [8]
Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Ears, M/M, Will's Dogs are People
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-08 23:11:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12875055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleUggie/pseuds/LittleUggie
Summary: Ellie is a boss ass bitch.





	With Regards to Meredith Brooks

It’s late when Ellie gets off work. She had traded times with a second shifter so it’s 10:30 and she is ready to go the fuck home. She doesn’t mind working at Wal-Mart. Okay, so the pay and benefits are crap for the amount of work they expect. And their tardy and leave policy borders on criminal. All right, truth be told it’s an awful and degrading company to work for. 

Cashiering is the part she doesn’t mind. She even enjoys it somewhat. Especially the older customers who obviously don’t get out much. Often they want to stay and chat. It can be an issue if there is a line behind them, but if there is not she’s willing to talk to them. They just want someone to listen. 

Tonight, though, she didn’t get in feisty old ladies or sweet old men, instead she had to deal with a guy who she is pretty sure was tweeking, a teenager with a baby out way too late, and a middle aged soccer mom who didn’t want to accept that her coupon was expired. Then one of her coworkers was trying to start something about the coworker she had traded shifts with, and Ellie just does not have time for that. She has had enough drama in her life that she doesn’t look kindly on people who like stirring the shit pot, but she is not above knocking a bitch down to size if they need it. (In her past this had sometimes gotten her a belt across the face, but those days are long behind her and she is not looking back.)

So she was not in the best of moods as she headed back home. It’s also hot as balls even with the sun down. The air conditioner in her car wheezes to life. Might need to get Harley to look at that for her. She runs through a fast food joint since everything else is closed (drawback to living in the middle of nowhere) and gets a milkshake because she deserves it, goddamnit. 

The lights on in the house are like a beacon to her, and she can feel her spirits lifting. On the way to the front door, she pauses, ears twitching. What was that noise? A sort of inorganic clicking. Her ears swivel as she looks around. There, just around the corner of the house is an out of place shadow. 

She slips the thick soled nurse’s shoes that she wears for work off and sneaks quietly over to the edge of the house. A deep inhale brings a new rush of information. She can smell cut grass, sawdust, and soil. All familiar scents of home, but shining out of place is the odor of floral perfume. 

Zoe doesn’t wear perfume. She rarely wears deodorant because she thinks that the natural scent of the body shouldn’t be considered shameful and covered up. Ellie isn’t opposed to the occasional spritz of perfume, but all her preferred brands are much lighter than this smells. Plus, she doubts anyone would have been going through her cosmetics. (Well, maybe Max. He does like a nice mani/pedi). 

Striking like a snake, she darts around the house and grabs the arm of the woman lurking there. A small digital camera falls from her hands and Ellie snatches it up. 

“Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing here?” She growls.

In the dim light she can see it’s a petite human woman with red hair as curly as her own. She looks familiar. 

The woman tries for a disarming smile. “Oh, I thought this was my friend’s house, but I wasn’t sure. I was too embarrassed to knock on the door so I thought I’d just peek in the window-” 

“Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.” Ellie says. “You’re Freddie Lounds.” She’d placed the face now. It was on her awful website that she’d smeared Will in. 

“Okay, yes.” The woman’s face instantly changed, dropping the ditzy act. “This looks bad, I know-”

“It looks hella illegal.” Ellie says. She turns on the camera, flipping through the pictures. The more she looked, the angrier she got. There were several of Winston. She looks at the now fidgeting woman. Whatever expression was on her face made Lounds back up, pressing herself to the house. 

“Look, people have a right to know-” 

“ _ People _ have a right to  _ privacy _ .” 

Ellie grabs her arm and starts to drag her. Freddie digs her heels in, but the lupine woman is running an raw fury. All her exhaustion fleeing in the face of the white hot rage. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll delete the photos. Just give me my camera and I’ll go. You won’t hear from me again.” 

“Oh, no. Freddie, you wanted a story. Wouldn’t you like to get the full one?” Ellie drags her up the porch steps and flings open the door. It slams against the wall. Seven pairs of eyes turn to look at them. 

Will shoots up. “Ellie, what’s going on?” He frowns at Lounds. “What the hell is she doing here?” 

“Oh, I just ran into her outside the house.” Ellie says with faux airiness. Her fingers were white where she was gripping the other woman’s arm. She tosses him the camera, which he catches automatically. “So I thought I’d invite her in for a chat.” 

“Who is she?” Zoe asks. 

“Freddie Lounds.” Harley rumbles, standing up from his chair. “That reporter woman.” 

Ellie forgot how intimidating Harley can be when he wants. He’s a mountain of a man with a killer poker face. If you didn’t know he was a big softie underneath, he could be pretty damn scary. 

She pulls the reporter over to the couch and pushes her down. Will’s ears are laid back, his tail bristling as he goes through the camera’s contents. It is obvious when he gets to the pictures of Winston because he begins growling. Zoe and Buster look over his shoulder (well, Zoe does, Buster looks over his elbow). 

All the lupines in the room are tense in response to their leader’s displeasure. When he narrows an icy glare at Freddie, the others move in behind him, instinctively closing in on the interloper. The reporter’s eyes dart from face to face. She is good at hiding her unease at the situation, but Ellie can see her swallow hard. She fancies if she tried hard enough, she could hear the awful woman’s heart beating like a trapped rabbit.

Will speaks, and his voice is as harsh as Ellie has ever heard it. Unlike her own molten rage, his anger runs cold and stoney. 

“One reason, Freddie. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t call the law on you right now. Trespassing on on a pack’s territory can carry some heavy consequences.” 

“I didn’t know you were part of a pack!” the reporter bursts out. 

Ellie snorts.  _ Not part of a pack _ . Can’t the stupid woman see that Will is heart of the group? He is alpha. How dare she come to their den after some of the shit she wrote about him? Ellie growls low, showing teeth. Freddie’s eyes flick to her and widen when they see the bared canines. She speaks faster, voice rising a pitch. 

“Your profile said that you were a loner. Lone lupines tend to be unstable and prone to acts of violence.”

“How does that explain why you are sneaking around my house?” Will says, sounding extremely unimpressed. 

“What were you trying to find?” Ellie asks scornfully. “Bodies in the freezer? Or maybe under the floorboards?” 

Freddie gathers some of her bravado, sitting ramrod straight. “You never know. That’s what investigative journalism is for.” 

“Oh please.” Ellie advances on the woman, and is pleased to see her shrink back. “You write melodramatic drivel about murders. You’re a modern day penny dreadful. Don’t act like you’re Joseph Pulitzer.” 

“Shows how much you know about him.” Freddie sneers back. 

“How did you get access to my profile anyway?” Will places himself in the middle of their argument. Ellie looks around him, still eyeballing Lounds. 

“I have sources.” 

“Yeah, and I bet Jack Crawford would love to hear the names of them.” He holds up the camera. “Almost as much as he would love to see the photos of a closed crime scene that you snuck on to. That falls under tampering with evidence and impediment of justice.” 

“What do you want?” Freddie asks flatly. Her face is a sour pucker. “You would have called the police by now if you were going to. So why are you keeping me here?”

Will points the camera at her and takes a picture of her sitting there, capturing a wonderfully confused and irritated look that was particularly unflattering. Then he pops the sd card out of the camera and pockets it. He kneels down so he is level with her sitting. He offers the camera back to her. Slowly, as if waiting for a trick, she takes it. 

“It is simple, Freddie. I want you to stop writing about me. I won’t even ask you to stop sneaking onto crime scenes, though I doubt you’d listen if I did.” He straightens back up. “I don’t know what you have against me, and frankly, I don’t care. But leave me, and my pack, alone.” He pats the pocket. “This is just a little insurance. I don’t think you care much about your reputation, such as it is, but I seriously doubt a restraining order and another libel case will help your career any.” 

“Fine, fine.” Freddie stands up and starts edging to the door. “We’ll forget this ever happened. I was obviously misinformed anyway.” 

“Didn’t stop you from snooping, though.” Ellie says. “Harley, help me escort the press out to her car. Where is it by the way? I didn’t see it when I pulled in.”

“I parked in a clearing further up the road. And I don’t need an escort-” 

“We insist.” Harley rumbles. “There are dangerous people out there.” 

They smile at her in a way that clearly telegraphs that there were dangerous people in here, too. She scurries out the door with the two of them flanking her like prison guards. 

They are silent except for the crunch of dry grass underfoot, pausing to retreive Ellie's shoes. Sure enough, Freddie had hidden her car about a quarter mile out from the house. With the lights off, no one would notice it was there. Ellie puts a hand on the door to keep her from opening it just yet. 

“One thing,  _ Freddie _ .” She drawls the name like an insult. “Our Will is being nice with his little lawsuit threat. I-” She leans forward, bearing her teeth again in a vicious grin. “Am not nice. If I ever see you’ve even written a footnote about anyone in our pack. I will personally track you down. And believe me, I can get creative when pissed off.” 

Freddie takes a step back, but doesn’t drop her additude. “So you are the enforcer. Funny, I wouldn’t have expected that.” Her gaze goes to Harley standing calmly and quietly a short distance away. 

“Oh no, it’ be my choice entirely.” She opens the car door, and gives her a sweet smile. “Safe travels.” 

The two watch as Freddie’s taillights disappear. 

“You think she’ll keep her word?” Harley asks as they start to make their way back home. 

“I almost hope she doesn’t just so I can hand her ass to her.” 

Harley chuckles. “Calm down there, Cujo. The bitch is gone.” 

“No, she isn’t, Harley.” She waits for him to look at her quizzically. She grins widely at him. “I’m right here.”

**Author's Note:**

> There will be one more of these from Hannibal's pov. I'm not sure when it will be up. Thanks to everyone for following along! I'm glad you are enjoying them.


End file.
